Belinda's brain

My father is a very patriotic man and had always enjoyed celebrating Independence day and ever  since I can remember my dad has flown a flag where ever he had lived. He would buy, design and install elaborate flagpoles in lovely landscaped settings and with special lighting so his extra large flags could be seen at night. I had always liked that about my dad - his patriotism. When I was around ten years old I remember begging him to buy my brother and I some fireworks for the fourth of July but he insisted that I learn the preamble to the constitution before he would buy us anything and so I learned it - at least for the day.

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" We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

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When I was around 12 my father bought.... I'm thinking it was about three trash barrels full of fireworks for a group of friends he had over for the fourth. He insisted that my brother and I finish  off  the fireworks in the day's if not weeks afterward.  I remember that there were so many fireworks that I ran out of "punks" to light them with, so then my mom decided to give me packages of matches to use to  light the packs of cigarettes that she had given to me to light the remaining fireworks with. She said, "Your not getting anymore cigarettes because they're expensive so go outside and play." I remember smoking, playing with matches and having a ball with the leftover barrels of explosives.

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In July of 1979 my blog administrator ,brother ,dad and myself had a bottle rocket war - it was just like "dodge ball" only with higher stakes. Really high stakes.

 (In a pinch- a person can run pretty fast and they're way more agile than one would think.)

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*To my beloved children: I forbid you to do any of the above mentioned antics, except that you should learn the constitution -  while it still means something.
(Lastly -The new world order, I will never pledge allegiance to it.)